The earliest standing fabric of the church of St Leonard, Southminster, is the early-12th-century nave, but the place-name betrays earlier origins. It was almost certainly the minster of Denesige mentioned in the will of Bishop Theodred of London of 942 x 951, but the former may have been founded in the early 8th century, when an earlier bishop of London, Ingwald, was granted a substantial amount of land in the Dengie Peninsula in eastern Essex in which Southminster is situated. Though test-pitting at Southminster has failed to reveal Anglo-Saxon pottery, metal detecting has revealed a number of sceattas nearby. Moreover, neighbouring Asheldham, which has produced middle Saxon ceramic, may have been a ‘home farm’ of Southminster. The latter was one of a number of ‘directional’ minsters in Essex and Kent named from their compass direction in relation to a parent minster. It is suggested that these were founded as a form of ‘outreach’ near to what were already community foci.

南敏斯特圣伦纳德教堂最早的站立结构是 12 世纪早期的中殿，但地名背叛了更早的起源。它几乎可以肯定是伦敦主教西奥德雷德 942 x 951 的遗嘱中提到的Denesige大教堂，但前者可能成立于 8 世纪初，当时伦敦的一位早期主教 Ingwald 被授予大量的Southminster所在的埃塞克斯东部登吉半岛。尽管在南敏斯特进行的试探未能发现盎格鲁-撒克逊陶器，但金属探测已经揭示了一些sceattas附近。此外，生产中撒克逊陶瓷的邻近的 Asheldham 可能是 Southminster 的“家庭农场”。后者是埃塞克斯和肯特郡的众多“定向”牧师之一，根据他们与父母牧师相关的指南针方向命名。有人建议，这些是作为一种“外展”形式建立的，靠近已经成为社区焦点的地方。